9960 réponses à ce sujet

[Ignis Mors]

*dances in* OMG, the most stressful week ever is now officially over! spring break is on, and I am just so happy to have the next ten days free of school-related worries! (I have to do some reading at some point, but still, totes stress free). maybe now I can actually get some writing done.

 

which leads me to a question. with the passage of time, how much do you think changing a canon character's attitude/demeanor is possible? I just rewrote a small bit of my ME story and put Jack into a scene (my story takes place 20 years post reaper war) and I decided that after 20 years of teaching biotic kids, being a mentor, and working with the alliance, she'd be a much less volatile/vulgar person. however, in rereading my rough draft of that bit, I find myself wondering if her fans will cry foul about it. *ponders* not that I particularly feel like rewriting it again, especially given my vague plans for down the road that will better illustrate that the old Jack still lurks in there somewhere, but still... after twenty years of growing and maturing, I am taking liberties with many of the old Normandy crew... not because I feel I couldn't capture them as they were in the games, but because I just don't see any of them not growing and maturing (and thus changing) with such a stretch of time behind them.

Here's my advice. Write her how you want. Feel free to turn her into the biggest girly-girl ever to live if you feel like it. I've always said, just write what you want to. If you think that it would make sense for the character, write her that way. And, if you ****** people off with it, just explain to the angry people why you did what you did. You aren't a professional. You're writing fanfiction. And, what you've said seems like a fairly reasonable development of the character. And, if people don't like what you're doing. I have a very handy tool for dealing with them. AU fanfiction. (Which is what yours sounds like.) means you can change things to fit your needs. 

Also, since I'm on top, here's a bit of dialogue from the chapter of Meus Mundus I'm working on.

The two thugs fired from their omni-tools a grey smoke, obscuring their presence. A moment later, Jessica heard Miranda say, "How'd the smoke turn into ponies?"

The Commander said, "Goddammit. Not this again." 

"Not what again, Commander OSD-head?" Garrus asked, tilting his head slightly. 

"Great." she muttered, "You're high too."

[YurigirlzCrush]

I'm not sure I'd call my story AU. to me, that implies that it diverges from the events laid out in the games. which my story definitely does not. I'm writing it on the basis that all the stuff in the games happened. the crucible fired, the reapers were destroyed, Shepard died (no final breath... it didn't go quite that well), the galaxy worked to rebuild, and life went on. the story is just 20 years after all that. but thanks for the support of writing it how I see it... I was planning to keep it anyway. but I was curious as to thoughts on the subject. like I said, I have plans that would show later that the Jack everyone knows and loves is still in there... she's just 20 years older and a lot more mature and respectable... she's been a teacher for 20 years, after all. that's bound to mellow someone out a bit (or drive them absolutely insane *grins*)

[Seracen]

I totally do flashbacks in my stories.  Unfortunately, I italicize my flashbacks, and often the formatting isn't preserved.

 

As for changes in character, I find them totally acceptable, so long as the reader understands that time has passed.  For myself, I totally mellowed Jack out a little, progressing her from the ME3 version.  However, I made sure to keep her core rebelliousness in tact, letting it peek out from time to time.

 

Now...back to the ESO beta!!!!

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

I'm not sure I'd call my story AU. to me, that implies that it diverges from the events laid out in the games. which my story definitely does not. I'm writing it on the basis that all the stuff in the games happened. the crucible fired, the reapers were destroyed, Shepard died (no final breath... it didn't go quite that well), the galaxy worked to rebuild, and life went on. the story is just 20 years after all that. but thanks for the support of writing it how I see it... I was planning to keep it anyway. but I was curious as to thoughts on the subject. like I said, I have plans that would show later that the Jack everyone knows and loves is still in there... she's just 20 years older and a lot more mature and respectable... she's been a teacher for 20 years, after all. that's bound to mellow someone out a bit (or drive them absolutely insane *grins*)

 

Of course you know I'll say "do it." Anything that is more than a few years after the reaper war is fair game with the canon characters. Their story arcs are over. They're going to mature. Some are going to grow old in twenty years -- like Hackett. I'd expect Jack to mellow some depending upon what she does after the war. If she continues to teach biotic kids she's going to mellow. If she goes back to a life of crime, she won't. One thing for certain is that she's going to have to earn a living, and the war has changed her and everyone who fought.

 

The fact that I was in a role play and used my parts as a FF novel for the Battle of London, and ended up changing canon because I had to stay true to my characters. Sorry Bioware fans. Things happen when you let characters drive a plot. Yet things could have happened this way, and in my opinion should have happened this way, so I did it. 

[fluffywalrus]

I think mellowing out Jack's character is both reasonable and realistic if she's been teaching across that span of time. Time changes everything and everyone, and it would be kind of jarring to read an ME fic where characters (especially short lived ones like humans, salarians, etc.) hadn't changed over time.

[MrStoob]

Also, please don't bring in gun control and such. As an Okie, and a (semi) reasonable person, gun control bugs me. As there are other, better ways to handle the issue of firearm abuse and such. 

Hm.  Probably best to keep politics off the table.

[BronzTrooper]

I agree.  Don't want to derail this thread with debates over stuff that we shouldn't have to argue about. 

[Ignis Mors]

Semi-on topic question of the day. Has anyone else noticed that the standard Femshep hair from ME1 looks freaking awful? I recently started a new playthrough of the ME1(to have things in a specific way for ME2) and I noticed that the hair was really jagged. Like, saw jagged. (More jagged than hair in KotOR, and other older games.) Sorry, but it looks atrocious to me, and is irritating. 

Anyways, to actually on topic question.(I'm thinking that with a silly, not totally related and a serious on topic one things will be more enjoyable.) Are there any scenes in Mass Effect or Dragon Age(Pre ME3/DA2) that you felt just didn't work and just wanted to rewrite them differently? For me I'm not too fond of Dragon Age Awakening because I want to keep your dog from the vanilla game. That, and I want to keep starfang. (I had three grandmaster enchantments in it, and lost them all.) So, I'd rewrite it to get my dog/starfang back.

And in ME1/2(and 3 too.) I'd have it be an option to just kill everyone, for the lols.  

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

If  you want better you have to use a mod.

[Ignis Mors]

If  you want better you have to use a mod.

Yeah. And all the download links for the mods seemed a bit sketchy to me. So, if you all have a good option for getting those, I'd definitely appreciate it. 

[MrStoob]

Hmm.  Had to load up to have a look at her default hair.

I've seen worse. ^^

 

I almost... almost... felt like a new play through after going through the character creation menus, hearing 'Vigil', the sfx and the 'Profile Corrupted' lady.  But then got over it. lol

 

On an unrelated note, one of the more popular vids on my YouTube channel is 'How to equip the thorian gas in Mass Effect'.  Seems a lot have trouble with that.  But without doubt, the most viewed vid I uploaded is 'ME3: Morinth Encounter' (c.70k views), with various comments on the lameness of BW for that one.

[Ignis Mors]

Hmm.  Had to load up to have a look at her default hair.

I've seen worse. ^^

 

I almost... almost... felt like a new play through after going through the character creation menus, hearing 'Vigil', the sfx and the 'Profile Corrupted' lady.  But then got over it. lol

 

On an unrelated note, one of the more popular vids on my YouTube channel is 'How to equip the thorian gas in Mass Effect'.  Seems a lot have trouble with that.

Yeah, the hair isn't the worst I've ever seen, but it just bugs me that with even a tiny bit of anti-aliasing I could get it looking so much less jagged. Also, LOL. not knowing how to install the thorian gas mod. That seems like such a simple thing to figure out. (there's something that says, HEY PRESS THIS TO INSTALL MODS) in the menus. 

Also, Stoob, do you know of any good AA injection mods for ME1? 

[BronzTrooper]

About the FemShep hair...  I never really noticed, though I never use the default hair anyway.

 

And rewriting the scenes...  honestly, the biggest one I can think of is in DA2 when you find Grace and the others in the cave.  I wish you had the option to kill her.  For DA:O, I'm not sure.  Maybe add more lines for a city elf Warden when you find Caladrius shipping alienage elves to Tevinter.  Somewhere along the lines of, "I'm gonna tear your f***ing head off!!"    And yeah, bring back Starfang and my faithful mabari in Awakening.

 

For ME1 and ME2...  I'm not really sure.  I guess the scene with Kenson and the detonator.  Shoot the detonator out of her hand, then shoot her in the head.  That way Shepard's got plenty of time to warn the batarians, set to VI to have the asteroid hit the mass relay just after the Reapers arrive, and get back onto the Normandy.  Would have solved a lot of problems.

[MrStoob]

 

Also, Stoob, do you know of any good AA injection mods for ME1? 

That's something I've never delved into, ME mods.  Though a friend on Steam passed me this link to mods when they'd just bought ME1.  I dunno if I've got another play through in me to be bothered modding it now.

http://www.moddb.com...s-mod/downloads

 

And on the thorian gas thing, makes me wonder if they've been installing ANY mods on their equipment? 

 

On re-writing scenes.  I'd like to re-write whole arcs. lol

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

The default hair is called "helmet hair." You've heard of Aquanet? What you do is style your hair and use an entire can of it. Actually you don't even need that much. Your hair won't budge even in a wind storm. And they still sell it!! How do you think we kept our big hair in place? Hair that goes crunch. I never needed that much, though. My hair is so thick that all I had to do was back brush it while I blow dried it, and use a little spray on it then flip it back and voila! Big hair. Of course it took like 30 minutes to blow dry.

 

Anyway you're not interested in that. I agree with MrStoob. I prefer rewriting whole arcs, and I'll even go so far as to include entire sub plots.

[Ignis Mors]

Thanks for the link, Stoob. Currently looking at it. :-)

Also, silly question of the day that is totally unrelated to the actual topic. What is your favorite kind of fish? I personally like salmon/catfish.

[BronzTrooper]

I don't know.  Either barracuda or shark.  If I could choose any marine animal, I'd go with the blue whale.  It's heart is the size of a car!

[Ignis Mors]

Serious question time! Have you ever written a scene, scrapped it, then forgot that you scrapped it? I recently had that happen to me, because I checked all three of my stories for a scene where the main character was about to break someone's arm, but then realized it was their LI, so stopped themselves just in time. And I could have sworn that I included that in something. But I can't find it anywhere. :-( Sigh,and it was going to be funny too.

[Seracen]

Yeah. And all the download links for the mods seemed a bit sketchy to me. So, if you all have a good option for getting those, I'd definitely appreciate it. 

 

I'd also hit up Mass Effect Nexus.  I've been unable to get any ENB's to work for me (not Fallout, not ME), barring Skyrim.

 

 

Serious question time! Have you ever written a scene, scrapped it, then forgot that you scrapped it? I recently had that happen to me, because I checked all three of my stories for a scene where the main character was about to break someone's arm, but then realized it was their LI, so stopped themselves just in time. And I could have sworn that I included that in something. But I can't find it anywhere. :-( Sigh,and it was going to be funny too.

Sometimes, I find it difficult to edit my story, since if I reworked it, I tend to remember the original chapters.  But I understand, there are so many ideas that I plan to implement, I can't help but lose some nuance, simply because the codex in my mind isn't available to readers.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Stupid question time: Have you ever gotten a migraine and wondered why you got the migraine only to later figure out that you consumed nothing but migraine triggers for the entire evening? I did that on Friday. Stupid is as stupid does.

 

Okay now to serious question answer time: @Ignis - Yes. And that is why I have 14 versions of "The Lost Asari" on my hard drive at the moment. Every time I do a major edit or add a new chapter, I put a new version number. It would be more than 14 versions except I had 80 separate text files I had to consolidate initially. Since then I've done 14 major revisions or additions. That way if I delete a scene and later decide I want it, I will have an older version that has the scene.

 

For stuff that is no longer being used -- I still keep it and put it in a folder with the name of the work but "(name of work) Old"

[fluffywalrus]

Hey all! Just letting any interested parties here know that if you don't see me around all that often here on out, it's probably for a good reason. A roommate of mine just more or less screwed me over, and thus, I'm going to have to somehow find the money to make up his share of rent for the indefinite future. As nearly 4 years of university has pretty much left me with no savings and a bank loan that has a ceiling I've been close to reaching, I...well, I now have more pressing concerns than writing. Which sucks.

 

So...yeah. Best of luck to everyone here, you've all been pretty fantastic. Not saying this is, like, a permanent goodbye, but a questionable brown substance just hit my fan, and I'm not real sure how to clean it up. Might take a while.

 

Have a good one!

[Ignis Mors]

Oh that sucks, fluffy. Hopefully things get better for you soon.

[YurigirlzCrush]

aww, fluffy... I'm so sorry to hear that. but you're a really bright person. I know you'll manage to work things out somehow. I totes have faith in your ability to figure something out. just try to find a way to keep the stress and all in check so it doesn't drive you batty while you work it all out. lean on friends and family for emotional support or whatever. financial hardship is tough enough. don't let stress add to it any more than it has to.

 

writing can wait until you smooth things out. your loyal fans will totes understand! anyone who doesn't, you can send my way. i'll set them straight for you. *smiles* seriously tho. take care of yourself. and if and when it's convenient, you can say hi to us. i'll totes keep positive thoughts on your behalf *nods*

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

That really sucks, fluffy. You'll figure out something. Just drop by every now and then to let us know you're okay, please.

[BronzTrooper]

Damn.  I know what that's like.  My family has been hard up for money for years now.  It doesn't help that we keep getting screwed over with money.  I'm sure you'll figure something out.  You gotta stay positive, right?